Leeds 27-yr-old makes shock claim: I was frozen out this season after boots blunder

Mateusz Klich has revealed that he was frozen out by Thomas Christiansen at Leeds United after a boots blunder led to the team shipping a goal in last September’s defeat to Cardiff City.

The Poland international, 27, only played 21 senior minutes for Leeds after his slip during the 3-1 defeat at the Cardiff City Stadium led directly to a goal.

Klich claimed former boss Christiansen failed to speak to him following the incident and he was then loaned out to Eredivisie side FC Utrecht in January, just six months after his £1.5million transfer to the Yorkshire giants.

“I slipped in the next league, literally, though I was optimistic after the transfer to Leeds, who really wanted me,” Klich told Polish website SportoweFakty.

“When I started to play fairly regularly, there was an unfortunate match against Cardiff. I badly picked shoes and during one of the actions I slipped on the pitch, I lost the ball and the opponents went with the counter that brought them a goal.

“Officially, the manager Thomas Christiansen did not say anything to me, but then he stopped practically speaking to me and did not call me into the team for the next matches. I could have guessed that it was about this situation.”

Football Insider verdict:

It was baffling to many fans that Leeds paid relatively big money for Klich and then hardly ever played him. Even when they finished seventh under Garry Monk, there was a deficit of genuine calibre in central midfield, and that proved to be the case once again this season as mainstays Kalvin Phillips, Eunan O’Kane and Ronaldo Vieira struggled to control the tempo of matches. The one exception was January signing Adam Forshaw, who missed a number of matches due to injury but is a class act and will be the first selection in that position next season. Klich is a defensive midfielder who can put his foot on the ball and provide the kind of creativity that Phillips, O’Kane and Vieira are incapable of. Christiansen clearly didn’t rate him that highly, and it is questionable whether the Pole’s game is suited to the Championship’s unique rhythms.